Labour’s plans for VAT on Private Schools

[Busydadof2]

The Labour Party has proposed introduction of VAT on private schools.

In the scheme of things the money they will bring in from this is tiny compared with total expenditure on state schools, while it will drive more burden on the state system as some parents leave private schools. I think this is a populist ploy to get traditional Labour voters to vote for what is in any other sense a centrist party.

Have you considered signing this petition to make sure the policy gets scrutinised and the weight of public sentiment against it is known?

Change.org petition: Stop Labour from adding 20% VAT to private school fees and forcing kids to change schools

www.change.org/p/stop-labour-from-adding-20-vat-to-private-school-fees-and-forcing-kids-to-change-schools

Various perspectives from the signatories of this vote come to mind and resonate with our own situation, including this: “I work in a state school with over 30 in a class and oversubscribed. My 2 kids went or go to private schools and we have sacrificed loads to do this. We are NOT wealthy, many of the kids at the school I work at live in bigger houses and have much more disposable income than we do. We chose to send our kids to private school rather than live in a bigger house instead of our semi detached on a main road. We holiday in the UK every year and I work full time. I buy my clothes on the high street or in charity shops. Many parents at the school my kids attend are in exactly the same situation. I agree there are some very wealthy parents there too and the addition of VAT will not even make an impact on them, they will pay it without batting an eyelid. All this will do is push the kids like ours back into an already oversubscribed state system, increase class sizes even more and create a bigger divide as private education will become truly elitist.”

@Workhardcryharder

I grew up penniless.
Git into self employed sales and through working 6-7 day weeks for many years built a multi million pound company from scratch.

So no, not like your privileged friend, although interesting you assume I would be. That says more about your character than mine.

I didn't have private education, fancy cars etc. growing up, but I do now. Graft, putting everything on the line, and something I doubt many would have the mettle to do.

I employ a very well paid team, so create jobs and wealth. I pay a fortune in tax, and choose to do so instead of employing tax dodging tactics.

I voluntarily repaid the furlough back to the Government after Covid which we claimed for employees whilst the business was closed.

Someone like you, who automatically assumes anyone with wealth must have had a leg-up with contacts / education / wealthy family etc. will never understand someone like me. I donate to homeless charities (privately, not as a business write off), and volunteer when time allows in a local soup kitchen....which I pay into via my business.

I would be in favour of every tax rate increasing by 10% if the capital was used wisely.

As I said in an earlier post, the gas engineer with a Midwife Wife who is in tears at the thought of displacing his daughter over the 20% increase deserves more credit than he would receive by many on this thread.

Personally I have contacted the school and offered to contribute towards a fund and asked others who are able to help people like this guy keep his daughter in private , because that is the type of person I am.

I'm prepared to bet if you are paying private school fees you are also paying for a good accountant and tax advice to minimise your bill.
Rishi sunak pays 25% tax. That's less than many middle income earners who can't afford private school.

And no I don't support raising taxes on the poorest who are currently struggling to feed and clothe their children.

You certainly are a complicated character. Doing all that donating and volunteer work and yet still talking of support being vomited on people. Quite the stand up admirable bloke of the people.

@AdamRyan read my previous post and hopefully it may educate you.

My business is a Partnership as I value privacy, and I pay 45% tax.

Why is it you lot are so keen to explain away success.

@TheLostOnes yes I would agree I am a complex character.

Regarding support being vomited, don't try to take out of context.

That was aimed at the Government who vomited covid support, which has to be paid for at some point, whilst totally excluding just under 4 million self employed who were not eligible.

I believe in work hard / play hard.

I believe the furlough scheme was too generous and support was
Misplaced. Many didn't get anything snd their lives ruined. Nearly 40 on Excluded UK have committed suicide as they received nothing. That is my criticism of the Government and quite different to this.

Try harder.

I'm not. I just think most wealthy people do a lot to minimise how much tax they pay and would rather see those loopholes closed than others pushed into poverty.

FWIW until recently I was also a 45% rate payer. I think PAYE tax payers aren't the issue, its the greed suckers who expect to earn a fortune but not pay tax "or they will leave".

100%. It's an ideologically driven tax rather than a practical one and it carries many risks.

What’s the gripe about private school teachers@Hobbi ? First with me now here? Why are you being so rude???!!

@CroftonWillow

Every tax, benefit reform and law change for the past 14 years has been ideologically driven.

@Sausagesinthesky

I was responding to someone who gave an example of a private school teacher not managing to teach in state. If anything, they exposed this poor teacher - I said it wasn't representative. And again, I've taught in both, successfully.

I agree entirely with this.

I know someone who owns a medium-large company in the UK, who does precisely that tax dodge. They lease IP from a zero tax jurisdiction back to their UK company to "wipe out" their profit on paper.

They haven't paid tax for many years, and as their owner is remunerated via the offshore setup, he still claims child benefit for his 4 kids.

I deplore this and after a heated discussion about it years ago we haven't spoken since. His justification was Amazon have a low tax arrangement and they need to do this to be competitive...but they employ others who pay tax!

I stated earlier that the Government need to set tax based on jurisdiction lead sales activity, and this would raise a fortune.

Even the Labour party have overcome some of their stupidity over scrapping nom dom entirely because yes people will leave

Idiotic to go with it in the first place but they got there in the end

Clueless and slow anyone with half a brain could work it out

But those people who buy designer clothes or other luxuries pay vat on them. People that buy bigger houses pay stamp duty on the purchase. And this thread is about vat on school fees. And my argument is that it’s a luxury and a choice and vat should be lev irs as such, just as it is on chocolate biscuits (but not Jaffa cakes)

So have I! And I don’t talk in terms of not being able to ‘cope’ or ‘hack it’ in state. In my personal experience state was a much better experience (due to the batshit nature of parents and their requests in private). BUT that’s an aside - this is a thread about the rights and wrongs of VAT on school fees. Not to start teacher bashing. You should be ashamed.

No private schools in NI apart from one small one and miraculously we get the best results in the UK- even better than many of the privates.
So tax away and sort your state system.

Yes agreed and I hope labour suggest that kind of thing.

Signed. This is a primed example of levelling down rather than levelling up.

I'm fairly neutral about VAT for private schools but your post makes me more not less likely to support it. Do you know what the average household income is in the UK?

"In the financial year ending (FYE) 2022, median household income in the UK before taxes and benefits was £35,000"*

"To be in the top 5% of earners, you'd need to earn around £87,000 per year. But if you earn more than £3,500 per month – a salary of £42,000 – you're already in the top 25% of income earners"**

*National office of statistics
**Wallet savvy

Signed and shared ✅

@Sausagesinthesky

Once again, slowly.

I WAS saying the one example of a teacher not managing in state was NOT representative. FFS, read carefully.

I used to teach DT A level.

Loads of state schools offer it. Hardly any private do.

@SouthCoastDad you are considering voting Reform. The fact that you would consider giving your hard fought for vote to that bunch of bigoted, divisive, populist people make me discredit your ability to make a good judgement call.

It is really sad that some parents cant feed their kids and there are many reasons for that. But surely you are not suggesting that others who have the disposable income - either from earning really well or having second and third jobs - should not spend it on what they value. What they value may be cars, bags or education and that is really up to them.

We need to be working to create a society where there is economic growth, create more opportunities for as many as want to to earn well, meritocracy is rewarded, great work ethic is rewarded and people can spend that money on what they value.

As a society, it is in our best interest for the entire society to be well educated - so yes, we need to focus on making state schools the very best they can be and on parents knowing their role is setting an example of great work ethic and high aspirations.

Newsflash - private schools will still exist and thrive even after VAT is added. So everyone needs to make peace with that and focus their angst on the real issues. Same as private healthcare which enables anyone to see a Consultant within a week, whilst others wait 2 years. And private dentistry etc. And those that use them pay their taxes and contribute like everyone else, yet pay out of pocket on top. More fool them if they can get a similar quality service for free but insist on paying! That is the world we should be focusing on creating!

Nah not signing that. Get rid of private schools and the stupid threads about not being to afford it on 200k

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

I'm sure they do, but not where we live. Do you think I want to spend £20k unnecessarily?

So we could move house - but how much is stamp duty these days? Always assuming I can sell. Or we don't move, and go private for his A'levels.

In the end DS will get his chance, I won't allow Labour to wreck all his hard work, even if I have to work until I drop. But it's sad for those children who come after him, and won't get the chance of a scholarship.

If Labour focused on improving schools rather than damaging them, they'd get a lot more support.